Under the Radar

Russell Eugene (Gene) Parta retired as Director of Audience Research and Program Evaluation for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague in 2006. Previously, Mr. Parta was Director of Media and Opinion Research of the RFE/RL Research Institute in Munich and earlier Director of Soviet Area Audience and Opinion Research of Radio Liberty in Paris. He has worked in the field of international broadcasting audience research since 1969. He served as Chairman of CIBAR (Conference on International Broadcasting Audience Research that brings together researchers from over 20 international broadcasting organizations). He is a graduate of St. Olaf College and the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University and has been a visiting research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on two occasions as well as at George Washington University. Mr. Parta was an Osher Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University in 2004 researching his earlier book Discovering the Hidden Listener: An Assessment of Radio Liberty and Western Broadcasting to the USSR During the Cold War and a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution in 2017-2018 researching this book in the RFE/RL Corporate Archives. He is co-editor with A. Ross Johnson of Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Acknowledgements


Introduction. Why a History of Audience Research at Radio Liberty?


Prelude. My Road to Radio Liberty (amabile)


First Movement (1965-1970). Early Years of Audience Research (andante)


Second Movement (1970-1980). First Steps in Audience Interviewing (accelerato)


Third Movement (1981-1985). Audience Research Breaks New Ground (sforzando)


Fourth Movement (1986-1990). Perestroika Changes the Game (fuocoso)


Fifth Movement (1991-1994). The End of the USSR and the Post-Soviet Transition (vittorioso, capriccioso, lamentoso)


Postlude. Past Successes, Future Challenges (coda)


Afterword. Ukraine 2022: The Information War (agitato)


Appendix 1: Charts Referenced in Narrative

Appendix 2. Some of Those Who Crossed My Path: Max Ralis, Ross Johnson, James Crichlow, Morrill "Bill" Cody, Ralph Walter, James Buckley, Eugene Pell, William W. Marsh, Viktor Nekrasov, Andrei Sinyavsky, Victor Grayevsky, Irina Alberti, Helmut Aigner, Christopher Geleklidis, Steen Sauerberg, Copenhagen interviewer

Appendix 3. The MIT Connection and Computer Simulation

Appendix 4. Some Examples of SAAOR Reporting and Surve Questions Asked

Appendix 5. Profiles of the SAAOR Team

Bibliography

Index